I am looking to start building my own boxes. I am getting mixed signals on the motherboards to use. Any advice from those of you that build your own boxes.

Thanks in advance!

Best Regards

Well, I use ASUS and FIC.

I'd recommend a Tyan mother board if your going the dual processor route. Or a True Intel board, the best kind for rackmount servers are the ones with the 10/100 Intel Nics and Graphics built-in :).

I don't particularly like the Intel boards, but that probably has a lot to do with the fact that their PS/2 mouse/keyboard ports are backward.

I've had pretty good luck with Tyan across the board. They're not always the fastest, but they're usually the most stable. You also usually can't go wrong with FIC or SuperMicro.

Integrated NICs and graphics are fine if you need a low-profile box that will serve a fixed function. Otherwise, I always prefer separate hardware, especially NICs. (As an example, I have a NIC going bad now, and it would be much more of a pain to deal with if it was on-board.)

The best board out on the markey for single processor IDE based systems is the Asus CUSL2 It was rated the best board in stable and speed. For Scsi stick with Asus, Tyan, or Supermicro. I would stay away from FIC, weve had trouble with them. Also staywith Intel processors, the athlons tend to overheat which is not a good combo in a server.

We buy so many servers a week we get really good prices, so if your having a hard time find a vendor let me know, I could probally work something out for you.

I use Supermicro and Tyan (For Dual + SCSI) .. I love them both :D

I should have posted a little better details. But you guys have answered my question. I am building Single and Dual Procs. and I was debating between the Supermicro, Tyan or the Intel mothers. Actually the point with the built in NIC going bad was something I didnt consider! Thanks for your help guys!

Best Regards

It wouldnt matter because the chances of a built int nic going bad are just as good as a card nic going bad, and in the event your onboard nic did go bad you could just throw in a card.

How much does it cost you guys to build a decent server?

Depends on what you want in it////

Say, PIII 550 256 RAM, and 9.1 SCSI HD.

I never built my own box before, so if you guys could enlighten me on what I need to buy and what costs are involved, I'd appreciate it a lot. :)

It all depends on where you get the parts from and what brands you use but for:

Asus Mainboard w/ pc133 support
733 Mhz Intel Pentium III
256mb pc133 memory
9.1gig scsi
Adaptec Ultra Wide Scsi Card
3Com 10/100 Nic Card
48x Cdrom
31/2 Floppy Drive
4mb AGP Video
Aux. Fan
3u Rackmount Case

1499.00 and that comes with assembly your choice of OS and a onsite warranty, I think that price is right around standard in the industry.

Do you buy your hardware online or directly in stores?
Can you recommend any good places?

Thanks for the info.

Some hardware we buy direct from the manufacturer because we buy so much, others we buy from places like ingram micro etc etc..

check http://www.pricewatch.com and http://www.shopper.com for low prices on hardware

Be careful at pricewtach there are alot of companys in there that are terrible to do business with.